Five former police officers are scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday for deadly shootings at a bridge after Hurricane Katrina, a coda for a case that became a high-profile symbol of police brutality and residents' suffering after the 2005 storm.

The Justice Department's probe of the shootings became the centerpiece of its push to clean up the troubled police department. Revelations that officers shot unarmed people and tried to justify the shootings with a brazen cover-up stunned a city with a long history of police corruption.

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Kenneth Bowen, Robert Gisevius, Anthony Villavaso and Robert Faulcon were convicted of firearms charges and face decades in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.

"I think it's going to be a sad day for the New Orleans Police Department, because it's going to be long sentences," legal analyst Robert Jenkins said.

Jenkins said the judge's punishment could inevitably be life sentences with the amount of jail time the former officers could face.

"If you look at the number as we are looking to it, it's a life sentence where they will never get out of jail, unless it's on appeal, but the chances of an appeal are slim," Jenkins said.

Arthur Kaufman, a retired sergeant who was convicted only of participating in the cover-up, faces significantly less prison time. He was the only former officer free on bond.

"He is going to get jail time, and it will be substantial, in my opinion," Jenkins said.

The officers' attorneys last week asked Judge Kurt Englehardt to delay the sentencing due to comments made by former federal Prosecutor Sal Perricone, who they said made negative remarks online about the officers and the case during the trial.